HONOLULU – The fourth-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team put an explanation point on the weekend series with No. 3 UC Irvine with a straight-set win Sunday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-22, 25-19, 25-20.
The Rainbow Warriors (15-1, 2-0 BWC) took both matches of the Big West series in straight sets after winning Friday's opener and did so in dominating fashion. In the series, UH hit .374 as a team while freshman opposite
Kristian Titriyski was nearly unstoppable, averaging 6.00 kills per set.
The Sofia, Bulgaria native finished with a match-high 19 kills, hitting .571. For the weekend, Titriyski hit a combined .417 with 36 kills in 60 attempts.
In Sunday's finale, UH's block took center stage as the Warriors finished with 11 team blocks led by
Louis Sakanoko's six. The sophomore from Paris, France also tallied 12 kills, hitting .440 and served two of the team's seven aces. Middle blocker
Justin Todd made his second straight start and posted six kills and four blocks. Fellow middle
Kurt Nusterer had five blocks.
Libero
'Eleu Choy finished with nine digs.
Hilir Henno led the Anteaters (10-4, 0-2) with 17 kills.
UCI led 19-16 late in Set 1 before the Warriors, spurred by aces from
Tread Rosenthal and
Adrien Roure, used a 7-1 run to turn the tables. Sakanoko and Titriyski went back-to-back kills to end it.
That was all the momentum Hawai'i would need. UH jumped out to a 9-4 lead in Set 2 and 7-1 advantage in Set 3 and the Anteaters never took the lead thereafter in either set.
The Warriors have a short week and return to the court this week for a two-match series with Lindenwood, Wednesday, March 5 and Friday, March 7 at SimpliFi Arena.
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